The development and regulation of the waterways which
are declared as National Waterways are under the purview of Central
Government, while the other waterways remain under the purview of the
respective State Governments. The Government has been taking various
steps to develop Inland Water Transport (IWT) which, inter-alia,
includes ensuring targeted depth and width in the navigational channels,
aids for day and night navigation, fixed/floating terminals at
specified locations for berthing and loading/unloading of vessels and
intermodal connectivity at select locations. Besides these, Central
Government also provides 100 per cent Grants-in-aid to the States in the
North-Eastern Region for development of IWT.
As per the Report prepared by RITES Ltd. in the year 2009 titled “Total
Transport System study on Traffic Flows & Modal Costs”, the share of
Inland Water Transport (IWT) in the total domestic transport during
2007-08 was 0.24 % compared to 50.12 % for the road and 36.06 per cent
for the rail sector in terms of tonne km.
Geonkhali-Charbatia stretch of East Coast Canal (217 km), Charbatia-
Dhamra stretch of Matai River (39 km) , Talcher- Dhamra stretch of
Brahmani- Kharsua- Dhamra River system (265 km) along with Mangalgadi-
Paradeep stretch of Mahanadi delta Rivers ( 67 km) having a total
length of 588 km. in the States of West Bengal and Odisha have been
declared as National Waterway (NW-5) w.e.f. 25th November, 2008. Out of
total length of 588 km., about 497 km. of NW-5 is in the State of
Odisha. The efforts to develop more commercially viable stretches of
NW-5 under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode with Viability Gap
Funding (VGF) under India Infrastructure Project Development Fund
(IIPDF) and PPP Pilot Project Initiative under the Asian Development
Bank (ADB) Technical Assistance are in process. Department of Economic
Affairs (DEA) has appointed a Transaction Advisor in this regard. Inland
Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) has its Head Office at Noida, Uttar
Pradesh.
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